Portrait of a woman, aged forty-one

Portrait of a Woman aged Forty-one from 1671 by Nicolaes Maes includes a precise age inscription that documents both the sitter's date of birth and the portrait's function as a record of specific life milestones. Maes trained with Rembrandt in Amsterdam in the early 1650s before establishing himself as an independent master. His mature portrait style absorbed Flemish elegance — producing fashionable likenesses with looser brushwork and warmer flesh tones that satisfied the demand of Amsterdam...

The portrait renders the middle-aged woman with Maes's characteristic naturalism, the precise age inscription adding documentary specificity.